In restaurants, cakes and pies are frequently displayed on plates or stands covered by a clear dome of glass or plastic. When a portion is needed for service to a customer, the dome is removed, a wedge-shaped portion is separated from the remainder of the cake or pie, and transferred to a plate by means of a cake server, which typically comprises a flat, wedge-shaped blade attached to a handle. Examples of such servers are depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 1,948,592, dated Feb. 27, 1934, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,609, dated Oct. 31, 1989. In some cases a cake or pie is pre-sliced into portions of predetermined size, and remains on display in its pre-sliced condition so that the portions can be readily removed using the server alone, without a separate cutting step. In other cases, the portion to be served is cut from the remainder of the cake or pie by means of a knife, or by using the server itself as a cutting blade.
Especially in the case in which the cake or pie is pre-sliced, movement of the plate or stand can cause one or more of the pre-sliced portions to shift, fall over, or lose form. Moreover, in the case of a particularly delicate cake, or a pie having a filling with a high liquid content, a sliced portion, or even an exposed end of the remainder, can collapse on its own, even without movement of the plate or stand on which the pastry is displayed.
Damage due to falling over, loss of form, or collapse of an article of pastry results in waste, especially in a restaurant, since the damaged article cannot be served to a customer.
Another problem encountered in the display of cakes and pies is that the interior surfaces, exposed when a portion is removed, are subject to deterioration over time due to drying and exposure to the atmosphere.
Some establishments attempt to overcome the aforementioned problems by fashioning stops from cardboard, or by covering the exposed surfaces of the pastry article with wax paper. However, these measures are generally unsatisfactory and inconvenient, and are often abandoned because they become more of a problem than the unsupported cake or pie.
The problems of collapse and exposure have been addressed by specially designed devices described in U.S. patents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,168 describes a protector consisting of two plates which are hinged together and fit against opposed, exposed surfaces of a pie, cake, and wheel of cheese, to prevent the surfaces from drying and becoming stale. U.S. Pat. No. 2,573,577 describes the use of a pair of cake lifters and preservers, each comprising a vertical plate, a horizontal foot member, and a tab-like handle. The plates are positioned against the respective exposed surfaces of the cake, and the foot members are slipped underneath the cake and used to lift portions of the cake for service.